Zhang Xuewu's honorary troops with Shen Hanze as the division commander, Ye Yunfei as the chief of staff, and the five subordinate combat brigades and two regiments of each brigade are all composed of the Whampoa system of capable fighters carefully selected by the Rehe Army, all of which are caused by the restlessness of the Kwantung Army, Zhang Xuewu is not afraid that the Kwantung Army will storm his fortress city and the key points he defends, what he is afraid of is that the army will besiege it with heavy troops, encircle it but not fight, and form a strategic form of division, so that the hundreds of thousands of troops of the Rehe Army will be useless.

Because the Rehe Army is facing the tactical strategy of defensive counterattack in the face of the Yue Army, if the Yue Army surrounds and does not fight, it will be very passive, because although the Rehe Army is superior in weapons and firepower to the Yue Army, the timing and conditions for conducting a large-scale field annihilation war are still not mature, and the Rehe Army does not yet have the ability to annihilate the strategic units at the division and regimental level in the field, and the main reason for this is that the Yue Army uses troops intensively.

After the five main divisions absorbed the headquarters of the Northeast Army, the establishment of the three brigades and six regiments increased sharply to the establishment of five brigades and ten regiments, among which Zhang Xuewu ordered the civil affairs department to cooperate with the transfer of a group of well-trained militia to supplement the main force, and the units under the corps also increased from the original two reading brigades to seven reading brigades.

At present, the Baotou Arsenal has been able to produce 1005 mm caliber howitzers and artillery shells, and can assemble and manufacture jackal tanks on its own, and Tang Ziqiang's mechanized division has nearly 100 vehicles in storage in addition to the 120 vehicles it is equipped with.

However, the reception of Jews was not satisfactory, many Jews were also unable to leave their homeland, and after seven months of hard work, less than 40,000 related technicians and more than 100,000 family members arrived.

However, with the emergence of a large number of Jewish technicians and engineers, the shortage of skilled workers in Rehe has also been alleviated, and the working methods of German Jews are not much different from those of previous German technicians and engineers, so there is no big problem in the way of integration. However, with a large number of technicians and engineers, the semi-automatic rifle of the National Defense No. 1 plan instructed by Zhang Xuewu finally produced a qualified sample gun, and the birth of the new gun made Zhang Xuewu really excited, but the ammunition consumption of the semi-automatic rifle is six to seven times that of the rifle, and the output is small, so Zhang Xuewu gave priority to equipping a small number of special operations units and security forces.

Zhang Xuewu's storage of oil, weapons and ammunition in Suiyuan and other places was enough to double the expansion of the Rehe Army, especially the oil could be used for more than five years, but in the face of the overwhelming situation of Mount Tai of more than 40 divisions of the Kwantung Army, Zhang Xuewu still couldn't get up.

On March 7, 1937, the Kwantung Army of the Imperial Empire caused a clash with the Chinese garrison under the Shanhai Pass, the cause of which was that the Yue Army claimed that someone was shooting at it and asked to enter the Shanhai Pass to search, but the Chinese side naturally did not allow it, so a small team of more than 70 people of the Yue Army began to attack the 4th Regiment of the 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Brigade of the Chinese [***] Brigade relying on the city walls and fortifications, and its fate can be imagined.

Immediately, the Kwantung Army dispatched almost all of its fighters to bomb the Shanhaiguan Pass and shelled the pass with heavy artillery, and was supported by 82 Type 95 light combat vehicles of the First Tank Brigade of the Kwantung Army.

After the army captured Shanghaiguan, it directly attacked the 29th Army Song Zheyuan and the 32nd Army's Commercial War Department stationed in the Pingjin area, and the 51st Army, which was reduced to the B Army, immediately rushed to Pingjin for reinforcements.

It is said that the Kwantung Army is under the command of Minamijiro as the commander of the First Front Army, under the jurisdiction of the 2nd Division, the 4th Division, the 5th Division, the 10th Division, the 14th Division, the 15th Division, and the Twentieth Division, with the 1st Heavy Artillery Brigade and the 1st Tank Brigade and Regiment, to attack the Pingjin front! Then he directly took Datong, attacked Xinkou, captured Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi, and threatened Fengzhen, creating the illusion of intending to attack Ulanqab, attracting Zhang Xuewu's mobile forces to surround Baotou, where its important industrial base and arsenal were located.

On the other hand, Okamura Ningji was the commander of the Fifth Army, and the 24th, 25th, 36th, 37th, and 40th Divisions were attached to the 6th Tank Brigade and the 7th Heavy Artillery Brigade.

With the 50th Division, the 51st Division, the 55th Division, the 56th Division, and the 57th Division, and the 5th Heavy Artillery Brigade as the Eighth Army, Umezu Mijiro served as the commander to contain the Chaoyang defenders of Zhang Xuewu's department.

With the 60th Division, 62nd Division, 63rd Division, and 65th Division as Chifeng clusters, Chifeng was contained, with the 68th Division, 69th Division, 70th Division, and 72nd Division as the Ninth Army, with Tu Fei Yuan Xian as the second commander, to guard and contain Zhang Xuewu's corps in the direction of Chengde, and to guard and contain Zhangjiakou with the 80th and 85th Divisions.

In addition, the Kwantung Army had about 15 divisions and 11 mixed brigades in the northeast, of which six divisions and seven mixed brigades were the general reserve of this campaign, and the other four divisions were transferred to Qingdao to be used for the landing under the command of Seishiro Itagaki.

It can be said that his thunderous blow completely stunned the Chinese side, knowing that he would do it, but no one expected that the scale would be so large? The nearly 800,000 troops of the entire Kwantung Army almost poured out, and the middle [***] team in the Pingjin area was almost overwhelmed by the frenzy of the army. This is not known to the Chinese people before the war, most of the Chinese people are still immersed in the smoke screen of the victory in the battle of Chengde that year, like locusts, the army is attacking the city with the cooperation of aircraft, tanks, and heavy artillery, and its offensive speed is almost the speed of the march, and it can be said to be invincible for a time.

At the request of Yan Xishan, commander of the Second Theater, Wei Lihuang, commander-in-chief of the 14th Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army, led the 14th Army, the Ninth Army, the 85th Division, and the Fifth Brigade of Reading Li under Chiang Kai-shek's troops from Shijiazhuang to the north of Taiyuan for reinforcements.

As soon as Wei Lihuang Group left Shijiazhuang, there was bad news that the Fifth Army of the Fifth Army of the Japanese Army Okamura Ningci was directly attacking Baoding? Baoding is in danger of falling Shijiazhuang! Is it to continue to carry out the orders of the command of the commander of the theater of operations? Or do you want to turn back and defend? Wei Lihuang hurriedly asked for instructions from Nanjing, and according to the agreement on the Double 12 Incident, the troops of the three divisions reorganized from the Red Army were also reorganized on the spot in Shanxi, and Yan Xishan very generously replenished his 115th Division with 50,000 German-made Type 24 grenades, 100 machine guns, and 1,500 rifles.

On March 22, Wei Lihuang's headquarters concentrated near Xinkou and joined the departments of the former Second Theater and divided them into three corps. The 15th, 17th, and 94th Divisions of the National Revolutionary Army under the command of Liu Maoen were the right-wing corps.

The Ninth Army, the 19th Army, the 35th Army, and the 61st Army of the National Revolutionary Army, commanded by Wang Jingguo as commander-in-chief, Hao Mengling as the commander-in-chief of the former enemy, and Chen Changjie as the deputy commander-in-chief of the former enemy, were the Central Corps.

The 10th, 83rd, and 85th Divisions of the 14th Army under the command of Li Mo'an, as well as the 68th and 71st Divisions of the Jin Army, were the left wing corps, which was under the unified command of Wei Lihuang, the former commander-in-chief of the enemy in the Second Theater.

On February 23, he said that he occupied positions on the line of Longwangtang, Jiehepu, Dabaishui, and Nanyu north of Xinkou, and carried out the Xinkou blockade battle, and the order he received was to resolutely block the main force of the Yue Army from moving south, and in the face of the menacing main force of the Yue Army, as well as the headquarters of the Fifth Army of the Yue Army who outflanked Taiyuan from the flank, Wei Lihuang was in turmoil, [***] in Rehe, Chahar, and Suiyuan was intercepted and divided by the Yue Army with heavy troops, and now it has almost become a turtle in the urn, and Yan Xishan has slapped himself a few times. He complained that he was short-sighted, and he should have let Zhang Junjun enter the Jin Solid Defense a long time ago, why did he end up with the doom of being broken by the enemy one by one?

The menacing large-scale attack of the Yue army was really unexpected by Zhang Xuewu, but this is what Zhang Xuewu was most worried about, because the desperate large-scale offensive of the Kwantung Army is bound to become the prelude to the invasion of China. Seven incidents, Zhang Xuewu's previous bloody battle in Chengde can only be said to have won a so-called buffer for the [***] team, but this buffer has not been better utilized, the Liangguang Incident and the Double Twelve Incident have made the domestic situation almost chaotic, and it is precisely because I saw the opportunity that I dared to make a desperate attack.

On the contrary, the history of the history of the Army, which did not pay much attention to the Army, made full use of the time in the past few years to strengthen and replace the Army's armament, although the Chinese side has also strengthened the process of reorganizing divisions, especially the achievements of the Rehe Corps are even more remarkable, but all this is nothing compared with the country that has completed industrialization, the opportunity brought by the butterfly effect can be said to be two-way, not just to give unilateral opportunities, this is probably the punishment for changing the original trajectory of history, right?

Since the Kwantung Army launched a full-scale attack, it is likely that he will also have to start in Shanghai and Qingdao, unlike the outbreak of the Sino-Chinese all-out war in the previous history, both sides are trying to use the increase in strength one by one, but this time the army is directly pressed by the heavy army! If the Rehe Army can't play a role at all, then it is really possible for the army to defeat the main force of the [***] team within six months or a year, if the main force of the National Axe Army is crushed, then even if China really falls, without a large number of frontal battlefield containment and attrition, guerrilla warfare can not be carried out at all, the volunteers active in the three northeastern provinces are an example, are they not familiar with the local people? No!

Don't they have the support of the local population? Neither is it! Didn't they fight valiantly against the Kou? Not even more! Because the various units of the Japanese army they are facing can devote all their forces to repeated clearances, and there is no containment of large-scale battles on the frontal battlefield, once the Japanese army turns around and devotes a large number of troops to the elimination of local law and order, then the guerrilla zone will soon shrink or even disappear.

For a while, Zhang Xuewu was a little anxious! How did this happen? Among all the previous countermeasures, only there was no plan to deal with the attack that would be poured into the whole country? Although the international community has repeatedly condemned this aspect, there has been no sanction at all? Only the German side sent its ambassador, Todmann, to China to make a final mediation between the two sides.

Sure enough, what Zhang Xuewu was most worried about happened, on April 1, 1937, in the early morning of April Fool's Day, a traditional festival in Europe, the Chinese fleet transferred from the United Fleet arrived in Shanghai with the 3rd Division, 9th Division, and 11th Division.

In order to seize the opportunity, Zhang Zhizhong finally decided to report to Chiang Kai-shek on the spot, planning to use the 36th, 87th, and 88th divisions to take the lead in launching an attack on the Yue army.

When the Battle of Songhu broke out, Zhang Xuewu immediately ordered all 247 fighters of Gao Zhihang's Flying Tigers to take to the skies to compete for air supremacy with the Kwantung Army's Flying Division and the 5th and 7th Flying Brigades that strengthened their reading power.

The Flying Tigers are equipped with BF-109F fighters that have been tested in Spanish combat and have been modified several times in succession, and the two 0.50-inch machine guns in the wing have been replaced with four in the nose, which has twice the firepower of the previous one, and the effect of the nose shooting sight reflector is far better than that of the wing.

It is said that the Type 95 and Type 97 fighters equipped by the Kwantung Army were put into the Chinese battlefield, and they had an advantage over the biplane fighters such as the Hawker and i15 used by the Republic of China Air Force at that time, but when the Type 95 and Type 97 encountered the BF-109F, the Type 95 and Type 97 would become a typical tragedy.

In particular, the 97 heavy explosion, which has just been equipped and is regarded as a treasure by the military department, is simply a turkey in front of the BF-109F! Under the command and leadership of Gao Zhihang, Cheng Zhiyuan, and Xu Feiyang, the BF-109F equipped with radios caused heavy losses to the Kwantung Army Flying Division, and its ace pilot Watanabe Mitsuo Osa was also shot down.

During the two-month-long battle with the Kwantung Army Flying Division, the Flying Tigers produced nine ace pilots, who, as the name suggests, are also known as Ace or ACE in English, sometimes referred to simply as Ace. Zhang Xuewu knew that the military pilots in this period were not those who trained for more than ten hours or even several hours in the late stage of World War II, but also the captains and officers who had undergone hundreds of hours of flight training.

This is tantamount to a large-scale and complete strangulation of the technical reserve strength of the army's air force! He had been confidently preparing for an air raid to completely destroy Baotou, and he was anxiously waiting for the additional anti-aircraft artillery units to be sent by the domestic and North Korean sides, and the steel mills in Anshan and Benxi and the Mukden arsenal would become the main targets for defense.

Although the Flying Tigers of the Rehe Corps are fighting for air supremacy with the Japanese army on the one hand, and on the other hand, they are trying their best to strike at the ground forces of the Japanese army, the BF-109F can carry six 50-pound aerial bombs or two 100-pound heavy aerial bombs, although the ground attack effect is not as good as the Stuka dive bomber, in fact, the official German official name of the Stuka is a two-seat anti-tank attack aircraft, at the end of 1935, the Stuka has been tested by the German official, and the Luftwaffe has not given enough awareness of its important surname. However, due to his own obstruction, Zhang Xuewu finally failed to get the Stuka two-seat anti-tank destroyer, but the Germans, as the so-called compensation, provided Zhang Xuewu with the BK37 37 mm machine gun and tungsten alloy armor-piercing projectile technology they developed, this kind of cannon can be described as the ultimate destroyer of tanks, and even the Stalin II heavy tank in the late World War II could not escape the doom of being broken under the blow of this seed mother armor-piercing projectile.

Victory in the air cannot replace the crushing defeat on land, for the heavy attack of the Chinese army, whether it is the Jin army, the original headquarters of the Northeast Army, the headquarters of the Northwest Army, or the Central Army, it is very unsuitable; in the face of the overwhelming artillery fire and aerial bombardment of the Chinese army, the casualties of the Chinese [***] team that held their positions often exceeded 70 percent, and the rudimentary civil fortifications were not at all adapted to the cruelty of modern warfare.

The fiasco under the city of Chengde finally paid off, and what they got in exchange was the defeat of the [***] team.

Zhang Xuewu also knew very well that his absolute air supremacy would not last long, because the gap between the industrial strength of China and the two countries was extremely obvious, and during the struggle for air supremacy, the Flying Tigers were also shot down by the Yue Army, four planes were lost in crashes due to various mechanical reasons, and more than 30 planes were overhauled and could not be played, and the flight division of the Kwantung Army, which had shot down more than 90 fighters, doubled in the blink of an eye, and the gap in industrial strength made Zhang Xuewu shudder!

If you fight like this, within half a year, there will not be any Flying Tigers fighters in the sky of Rehe!

(To be continued)